Productivity Tips to Help You Be Less Distracted

If you are a highly distractible person, there are ways to be productive while also eliminating distractions. In this article, we share four specific techniques to increase your productivity while decreasing distractions.

Enjoy!

Gary

Distractions are productivity’s kryptonite, but there are ways to be productive and reduce distractions at the same time. Here are four great techniques you can use today.

Make a schedule and stick to it.

It is effortless to get distracted when you do not have a structure to your day. If you do not plan your day, your day plans you, meaning that whatever email, phone call, or discussion with a team member or colleague takes over your time. When you have daily and weekly plan, you are in control of the day.

Create a No Agenda, No Meeting policy.

There is some truth to the saying that most meetings could have been an email. One way to save yourself and your colleagues from suiting through pointless or unfocused meetings is to require an agenda for every meeting request. Requiring an agenda forces the person calling the meeting, that person might be you, to think through why the meeting is necessary, the goal and objectives, and who is genuinely required to attend. This activity may result in the realization that a meeting is not needed, or that only a few key people need to be in attendance.

Delegate anything that is not in your expertise.

This delegation tactic pertains to both your professional and personal life. If you are still wading through your inbox throughout the day, preparing invoices, or spending your weekends mowing the lawn and running errands, look at ways to delegate these activities. Hiring an administrator, virtual or on-site, can save you hours a day in simple email tasks. Hiring a landscaper or investing in a grocery delivery service can allow you to reclaim your free time.

Create a One-Touch policy.

Piles, literal or virtual, of mail, files, books, or general clutter are distracting and hinder productivity. Many times these piles get moved or rearranged to clean them up. Instead of allowing this visual clutter to distract you, implement a one-touch policy. Dedicate time to email so you can take action on the items in your inbox as you open each email. Go through your mail and immediately recycle junk mail. Put away files, physical or digital into folders as soon as you have action on them. This technique works great both at work and at home.

Change does not happen overnight. Implementing just one of these techniques until it becomes second nature will increase your productivity while allowing you to be more focused. Over time layer on another method until you have created a personal system of productivity. The key is to make incremental progress in reducing your distractions and thus increasing your productivity at work and free time at home.

Gary Vice is sought out by leaders in Software and Services who recognize the need to attract the industry’s best talent.  Through Strategic Recruiting Partners’ extensive network of relationships, they are able to identify high level opportunities for well qualified candidates.  To discover how this process can benefit your job search, simply call Gary at 469.402.4008.